Books with author Christopher Lynch

The Victorian era was the first great "Age of Doubt" and a critical moment in the history of Western ideas. Leading nineteenth-century intellectuals battled the Church and struggled to absorb radical scientific discoveries that upended everything the Bible had taught them about the world. In The Age of Doubt, distinguished scholar Christopher Lane tells the fascinating story of a society under strain as virtually all aspects of life changed abruptly.In deft portraits of scientific, literary, and intellectual icons who challenged the prevailing religious orthodoxy, from Robert Chambers and Anne Brontë to Charles Darwin and Thomas H. Huxley, Lane demonstrates how they and other Victorians succeeded in turning doubt from a religious sin into an ethical necessity.The dramatic adjustment of Victorian society has echoes today as technology, science, and religion grapple with moral issues that seemed unimaginable even a decade ago. Yet the Victorians' crisis of faith generated a far more searching engagement with religious belief than the "new atheism" that has evolved today. More profoundly than any generation before them, the Victorians came to view doubt as inseparable from belief, thought, and debate, as well as a much-needed antidote to fanaticism and unbridled certainty. By contrast, a look at today's extremes--from the biblical literalists behind the Creation Museum to the rigidity of Richard Dawkins's atheism--highlights our modern-day inability to embrace doubt.

Explore the world from the beginning of time until the present, in this amazing, over-sized timeline book that brings history to life! The timeline is uniquely broken out into 12 sections, including by subject areas (such as sea, land) and continents, as well as by date, with over 1,000 pictures and captions. From the rise of the dinosaur to the creation of the smart phone, the nearly six-foot-long timeline allows you to compare events across the world at any given moment in time. An easy-to-read chronicle, written in the form of newspaper articles, highlights key moments from history, such as the rise and fall of Rome and the invention of the steam engine. Other features include a page of letters to the editor, a fifty-question quiz, and a pocket magnifier to make it easier to explore all the timeline's details. Perfect for 6-14 year olds, and history buffs of any age!

Baseball-loving seventh grader Richard has hopes of turning himself and the new kid, Napoleon, into the best baseball players Boston has seen since the Gold Dust Twins“As long as you have baseball on your side you can overcome anything.” Seventh grader Richard Moncreif is convinced baseball will ease newcomer Napoleon Charlie Ellis’s transition to life in Boston. Napoleon is unlike anyone he’s ever met: poised, well educated, and a cricket player from the Caribbean. Napoleon is one of the few black students at Richard’s school, where racism is pervasive. But Richard believes that he and Napoleon can get through any hardship and become the next Gold Dust Twins, just like the famous pair of Red Sox rookies from 1975. After all, Napoleon is a natural athlete, and Richard knows everything anyone could possibly know about baseball. He just needs Napoleon to play along. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Chris Lynch including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

"All the sizzle, chaos, noise and scariness of war is clay in the hands of ace storyteller Lynch." -Kirkus Reviews for the World War II seriesThe First Special Service Force is an elite commando unit composed of American and Canadian troops. From the start, the Force is intended to go where other soldiers won't. The call for volunteers specifically singles out lumberjacks, hunters, prospectors, and game wardens as ideal candidates. And their training is anything but "basic," including intense lessons in parachuting, hand-to-hand combat, skiing, rock climbing, and adaptation to cold climates.One tight group of young men have made a point of carrying The Commando Pocket Manual with them everywhere. They build a unified little community around it, a text to guide them through the war.As this team travels through Germany, taking down Nazis as they go, they also carry calling cards to leave behind. The stickers read, in German, "The worst is yet to come."

Elvin just wants to fit in—but how can he find his place when he doesn’t know what to look for?Elvin Bishop is about to attend a three-week-long high school orientation camp, where each student is “slotted” or placed on an athletic team. Chubby, fourteen-year-old Elvin knows this is not the place for him. From the start, he’s told that some kids get picked on more than others, and to “try not to be one of those guys.” His friends encourage him to toughen up, to avoid being a geek by acting more confident. The trouble is, Elvin doesn’t quite know what kind of guy he is. And what if the kind of guy he is now isn’t the kind of guy he’ll be in four years? At times laugh-out-loud funny, Slot Machine is a keenly felt story of the push and pull of wanting to belong. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Chris Lynch including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

“I hit him so hard, the clash of helmets and pads sounded like a gunshot across the field. I crushed him with the hit, held on to him, and crushed him again when I slammed him into the ground . . . I had arrived.” Arlo Brodie loves being at the heart of the action on the football field, getting hit hard and hitting back harder. That’s where he belongs, leading his team to championships, becoming “Starlo” on his way to the top. Arlo’s dad cheers him on, but his mother quotes head injury statistics and refuses to watch games. Arlo’s girlfriend tries to make him see how dangerously he’s playing; when that doesn’t work, she calls time out on their relationship. Even Arlo’s coaches begin to track his hit count, ready to pull him off the field when he nears the limit. But Arlo’s not worried about tallying collisions. The winning plays, the cheering crowds, and the adrenaline rush are enough to convince Arlo that everything is OK—in spite of the pain, the pounding, the dizziness, and the confusion.Hit Count explores America’s love affair with football and our attempts to reconcile the clear evidence of its dangers with our passion for the game.

Now available in a revised and expanded edition, this book offers the first comprehensive critical examination of one of America's most celebrated living artists. Chuck Close reinvented portraiture almost four decades ago with a series of nine-foot-tall, black-and-white likenesses of himself and fellow artists, which astonished an art world dominated by minimalism and conceptualism. Close has since explored an array of mediums. This lavish, large-format volume is the first to deal with all aspects of Close's career and to place them in a biographical context. Christopher Finch's insight into CLose's achievement comes by way of hundreds of studio visits and thousands of hours of conversation since he met Close in 1968. Finch provides an engaging, in-depth analysis of Close's portraits on canvas, from the continuous-tone airbrushed heads of the 1960s and '70s to the painterly "prismatic grids" of the past two decades. The more than 300 illustrations features in the book survey almost all of CLose's paintings, including his most recent work, together with a selection of his prints and multiples, and examples of his photographic oeuvre. This beautifully designed volume reveals not only the variety of pictorial strategies Close has devised, but the extrordinary personality of the artist behind the work.

"I am a good guy. Good guys don't do bad things. Good guys understand that no means no, and so I could not have done this because I understand." Keir Sarafian knows many things about himself. He is a talented football player, a loyal friend, a devoted son and brother. Most of all, he is a good guy. And yet the love of his life thinks otherwise. Gigi says Keir has done something awful. Something unforgivable. Keir doesn't understand. He loves Gigi. He would never do anything to hurt her. So Keir carefully recounts the events leading up to that one fateful night, in order to uncover the truth. Clearly, there has been a mistake. But what has happened is, indeed, something inexcusable.